


Stranded

by Dammit_Jim



Series: Stargate Universe Oneshots [1]
Category: Stargate Universe
Genre: Angst, Canon Divergence, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Panic Attack, Survival Skills, crash landing/stranded trope, frienemies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-01
Updated: 2016-03-01
Packaged: 2018-05-20 04:37:05
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,875
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5991904
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dammit_Jim/pseuds/Dammit_Jim
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They were alone. Rush and Young. Stranded on some strange planet, without a gate and without a shuttle.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Stranded

They were alone. Rush and Young. Stranded on some strange planet, without a gate and without a shuttle. Everything technological they had was useless. The shuttle was beyond repair, and the radios were near useless as they had no spare batteries. They didn’t even have a kino or monitor to see if the planet’s atmosphere was safe. Not that they had much of a choice. The shuttle was probably venting air. The planet looked safe enough, though. Young could already feel that the gravity was greater than he was used to.

The planet was, upon first glance through the shuttle window, lushes and green. He expected the air to yield sweet aromas, which might originate from exotic flowers of all colours and shapes. He expected light showers to cool heated brows. That is what one might expect if they had never been to a rainforest. Instead, what he was met with upon opening the shuttle door, was sickly sweet, sticky heat; it was bugs in swarms, mud deep, forest thick, rain coming in torrents, prey and predator alike attacking.

Of course, after a day’s march Rush decided he’d fair better alone. Young had, stupidly, and in the habit of feeling the need to follow, defend and save his crew-members, attempted to follow him. But the tree trunks were so large and thick that Young could not see ten metres in front of him before his view was blocked so when Rush had disappeared he’d gone for good. Young gave up looking for him after stumbling into some kind of nest, which he got chased away from by a large flightless bird with talons the size of fingers. If Rush wanted to die alone then he was welcome to it.

Young learnt quickly, and after a painful and tiring night, that the most dangerous of the animals and bug life were nocturnal, and that there was much of them. There were biting ant-like bug nests all over, flying insects that stung or bit, scaled creatures that slithered and crawled out of every nook and cranny, and furred things with long claws. Young took to the tree tops, and after resting peacefully and in the cooler, lighter air, he began to form a plan of survival.

He found a good, sturdy tree, and built a wooden platform in its highest branches, forming a point in which he could rest and gaze across the wide, vast forrest. Nothing seemed to bother him there. There were bugs or small birds now and then but nothing dangerous so far. The day’s heat was dangerous, though. So he gathered food on the ground during the day, and then rested in the tree tops during the night.

Young had made wooden instruments, and stone utensils and liked to think Rush would have called him a neanderthal, and he would have laughed, and maybe Rush would have laughed too, having no strength left in him to maintain his grudge. It wasn’t that Young had forgiven Rush or anything…it was just that…He wouldn’t ever have admitted it to anyone but he missed Rush, and maybe it wasn’t the man himself; maybe it was the company that he missed but it was Rush who he’d been stranded with and it was Rush that he wanted by his side.

Unfortunately, Rush was gone and likely dead, and so he was alone.

The realisation of that struck Young on the fifth night he was stranded on the planet. It came in a slow trickling dread which froze his insides to the point he began shivering. He hadn’t felt such a cold since he’d been on Destiny, and he knew it wasn’t the weather; it was panic. He was alone, and he hadn’t heard a voice in five days and he’d likely never hear another person’s voice again. He felt the need to speak but didn’t know what to say. It felt weird, trying to force sound out of his mouth and form useless conversation and so instead he heard himself gasp, draw in a shuddering breath and let out a ghostly, inhuman noise that was too quiet and too broken and not at all human, and it only made him feel colder, and more alone.

He began to think of a way to get off the planet, a way he could contact Destiny or send out an SOS message. Of course, absolutely nothing came to mind. He wasn’t really the one who was good at this sort of thing. He could survive on a planet, sure, but Rush was the one who was good with wires and screens and numbers. That didn’t stop him from making the march back to their crash-landed shuttle.

What he found there probably shouldn’t have been surprising but he had honestly thought Rush would have perished in the forrest alone, not that stranding him on a desolate planet had stopped him from coming back. But there Rush was, cowering in the shadows of the shuttle, surrounded in an odd, nest-like mess of wires and cables and circuit boards. He looked like death. He was pale, and his face was drawn. He had welts and rashes and stings all over his skin, and his hair was matted and greasy. His ankle was also bloody, and wrapped up in a dirty material that was bound to make the would infected if not cleaned. When he looked up at Young he looked exhausted and weary and like he didn’t believe he was there at all.

The first thing Young did was offer him his canteen. Rush drank it too fast and began coughing violently. It didn’t matter if he threw it up, though, Young had collected stores of it and knew where to get more. After the water Young gave Rush some of the lake fish he’d caught. It didn’t taste great but it seemed to last, and could be eaten raw so Young carried it with him for snacks. Rush devoured three slices before he met Young’s eyes and really saw him.

“Think you can walk?”

When Rush’s eyes fluttered at the noise, Young didn’t feel so guilty at being pleased to have an excuse to speak. When Rush didn’t answer Young held out a hand to him. He took it with barely a glance and Young pulled him to his feet. The man was lighter than normal, obviously malnourished. Young wondered what he’d been eating or drinking the past weeks, and if he’d been in the shuttle the entire time. Rush stumbled and Young ended up hooking an arm around him and helping him along.

“I had thought I might be able to send out a signal or something,” Young said, knowing he’d never have been able to.

It illicit the response he was hoping for, though, because Rush scoffed, sleepily, and answered with a, “Not without me or a working computer.”

“You are a computer.”

“Exactly.”

Getting Rush up the tree turned out to be more difficult than Young had anticipated. The man was incredibly weak but from the worried glances Rush continually gave the growing darkness he knew how imperative it was that he climb to the very top. Young helped where he could and they took it at a slow pace, and when they reached the top Rush blacked out from exhaustion. He slept all throughout the night and then the next day too, and to save him from the heat Young moved him and made a small, makeshift canopy above his head. He even worked on redressing his ankle, which looked as if it had been bitten by something. Rush slept through it all.

When he woke the sun had begun to set beyond the horizon, and the hot, sticky night was just starting to cool, as a gentle breeze swept in. It was still too hot, though, and if Rush weren’t by his side Young might strip down to his boxers. Instead the Colonel kept decent (although he shed his jacket), and studied Rush, who looked just as uncomfortable as he did. The scientist’s hair was plastered to his face and he looked miserable. He was probably starved too. As if offended by the accusation Rush’s stomach growled. Young fished out one of the many fruits he’d collected over the last couple days and threw one to Rush. He caught it in both hands, and studied it for a moment, before biting into it. He made a disgusted face. Young laughed.

“That’s horrible.”

“Give it here,” he offered, in response, taking back the fruit and pulling out his army knife. “The skin is edible and filling but it doesn’t taste great.” He began peeling the fruit and as he did so, plopped the peelings into his mouth. He only grimaced once at the taste. “And once you have it completely peeled,” he chopped it in half and showed Rush the inside. “The middle is pulpy and gross, so I get rid of that.” He scooped the middle out and handed the fruit back to Rush.

Rush eyed him warily before biting into it. He didn’t thank him and really Young wasn’t expecting gratitude but he didn’t hide the pleased moan of eating something that actually tasted good and sweet and almost like a peach, or perhaps more like a mango.

“How’d you work all that out then?” Rush asked, eventually, whilst in-between bites. “How’d you know any of this wasn’t poisonous?”

“By watching the animal life,” Young answered.

Rush raised an eyebrow, “What happens if their body has adapted to a certain poisonous berry?”

Young shrugged, “It’s either this or we starve. The animal life here is hard to catch…trust me, I’ve tried.”

“So have I,” Rush answered.

“Have you been in the forest this whole time?”

Rush shook his head, “After the first night I tried to make my way back to the shuttle. I worked on it when I could but there’s not really anything left to work on. The shuttle wasn’t very good for shelter, either. It didn’t keep the bugs or animals out, though I managed to trap a small mammal once but…” he trailed off, eyeing his ankle. “I stuck to fruit and mushrooms after that.” He gestured to his arms, “the mushrooms were poisonous I think, but I’m certain the berries were hallucinogenic.”

Young smiled, he couldn’t help it. Even after all that, Rush had survived. Young had once thought it was genius but he was beginning to think it was luck. Rush gave him an incredulous look before the ridiculous luck of his story began to dawn on him and he allowed himself a small smile.

“I see you’re doing well, though,” Rush gestured about them.

Young shrugged, “Army camp.”

Rush nodded, “Course. I went camping once.”

“How long did you last?” Young asked, with a knowing smile.

“Five hours,” Rush smiled. “Hitchhiked my way back to civilisation.”

Young laughed, and shook his head in disbelief. He took out another peach-mango and bit into it as he watched the sunset with Rush. They were quiet, and in the quiet they came to an understanding. They might be stranded together, they might have been enemies once but whilst the shuttle was beyond repair, that didn’t mean their relationship was.

**Author's Note:**

> This was where I posted all my Stargate Universe oneshots but then I made a series where it was easier to view each summary. Sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused!


End file.
